U.S. Is Growing ‘Best Marijuana in the World’

If the crop they produced were legal, American growers of today’s high-powered marijuana would be praised for their ingenuity in surpassing foreign competitors.

“We’re getting to the point where we’re growing the best marijuana in the world,” said Larry Hahn, a Drug Enforcement Administration expert on indoor marijuana cultivation. “Americans are the best farmers in the world. Unfortunately that technology is applied in this illicit industry.”

By choosing the right plants and controlling light intensity, temperature, fertilizer and water, skilled growers coax out the maximum amount of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, marijuana’s chief intoxicant.

Some of the best indoor marijuana comes from hybridized strains of cannabis with origins in the Himalayas, where short summers force a fast-growing, compact plant, Hahn said.

Marijuana grows readily from seed--as demonstrated by the 134 million plants of wild-growing “ditch weed” seized last year across the nation. Such plants are reminders of the legal cultivation of hemp for rope and fiber before 1937, the year Congress restricted marijuana use.

But growing from seed is too chancy for many indoor growers. Instead, they select a healthy, productive mother plant and clone new plants from it to assure a uniform result.

Marijuana plants are male or female, and only the female produces flower buds with a high concentration of THC. The chemical is concentrated in a sticky resin secreted to catch the windblown pollen of male plants.

Hahn said the most potent “sinsemilla”--Spanish for seedless--is produced by allowing the female plant to reach sexual maturity without being pollinated.

Street names such as Christmas-Tree Skunk or Garlic Bud refer to the pungent-smelling sinsemilla buds that grow in clusters up to 16 inches long and 4 inches wide. These buds are what growers want; they often discard the less potent leaves and stems, known as shake, Hahn said.

Twenty years ago, most domestic pot had a THC concentration of 1% to 2%, Hahn said. High-grade sinsemilla today may have a THC concentration of 15% to 20%, he said.

A few plants can generate big profits. One healthy sinsemilla plant can yield up to a pound of buds over a four-month growing cycle. At $200 an ounce, that plant would be worth $3,200.